Public input sought on funding projects

Three town hall meetings will be held next week to assess the community's interest in establishing a Community Benefit District in Fallbrook. While beautification and maintenance projects throughout town are performed solely by volunteer organizations, those volunteers do not have as much funding as they used to and they are getting older.

While some local businesses donate water and services to these projects, the county does not pay for any of them. So, a number of local organizations are supporting an effort to create a Community Benefit District, including the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce, Fallbrook Land Conservancy, Fallbrook Village Association, Fallbrook Trails Council, Save Our Forest and Fallbrook Beautification Alliance.

The benefit district would be funded by a $5 a month fee added to the bills of FPUD customers. While the money would be collected by FPUD, there would be no fee for that service. All funds would go to local projects decided upon by a community advisory group.

The funds could be used for pocket parks, a library plaza for special events, completion of the Railroad Heritage Park, maintenance of flowers and plants on the South Mission Road median, Los Jilgueros Preserve improvements and trailhead signage, maintenance of trees and flowerpots, youth and adult sports facilities improvements and maintenance, and downtown improvements.

The idea of the benefit district has been discussed in the past without much progress. FPUD board member Don McDougal said that the board is supportive of the community and will discuss it further at their Sept. 24 meeting if the community is behind it.

There are fees associated with presenting the proposal to San Diego County's Local Agency Formation Commission, so the organizing group wants to know if the community supports the creation of the benefit district before it goes any further.

"I feel it is important to get the community informed and get their input on it," Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce CEO Lila MacDonald said. Setting up the Community Benefit District would be "for the next generation and would be nice to have it taken care of," she added.

Everyone is invited to participate, listen and be heard at the Town Hall meetings where the procedures and steps involved in creating the benefit district will be explained.

Business owners are asked to attend the meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 18, at 4 p.m. while residents have two meetings to choose from on Thursday, Sept. 20, one at 1 p.m. and the other at 6 p.m. All of them are at Fallbrook Public Utility District, 990 E. Mission Road.